The Pirates clinched a series win against Los Angeles Wednesday night as they took down the Dodgers 10-6. They improve to 29-32 on the season and now have their first series win in the month of June secured.
Though the pitching performance is not something you would typically focus on in a 10-6 game, the Pirates’ pitching staff put on quite the electrifying show.
Paul Skenes got the start, following up a dominant performance by his fellow rookie phenom Jared Jones, went 5.0 innings and allowed 3 earned runs.
It wasn’t the best outing for Skenes, but he battled hard against a $300 million dollar Dodgers team that only put up 3 runs and 6 hits against him. Skenes, to his credit, struck out 8 batters.
Luckily for Skenes though, he had a lot of support from his Bucco offense.
The Pirates lit up Dodgers starter James Paxton for 7 runs (6 earned) in the second inning, chasing him from the game after just 1.2 innings.
Nick Gonzales got the scoring started when he smacked a two-run double, adding to the hot streak he has been on ever since his call up from Triple-A Indianapolis.
The Pirates were up to bat 11 times before former Pirate Yohan Ramirez came out of the bullpen and finally put a stop to the blowout.
But another big story coming out of this game was the incredible heat that Pirates pitchers displayed in this game. Now, if you had to guess who would have had the fastest pitch in a game that featured Paul Skenes, I’m willing to bet anyone would have said Skenes himself.
But, Aroldis Chapman found a near gear tonight. Following up a very passionate scoreless outing last night, Chapman topped 103 miles per hour five separate times!
Chapman’s 103.8 and 104 mile per hour pitches now stand as the two fastest pitches in Major League Baseball, and the latter of those two pitches was the fastest pitch thrown by a Pirate player since 2008.
Chapman also struck out Shohei Ohtani on a 103 miles per hour pitch.
On the broadcast, Greg Brown said that a total of 28 pitches by the Pirates’ pitching staff were 100 miles per hour or above. Just an absurd stat from the Pirates and one that you absolutely love to see.
Despite the high heat, it was still another off night for the Pirate bullpen. Mlodzinski suffered a passed ball that scored a run (though that was mostly the fault of Yasmani Grandal) in the sixth inning. Chapman did surrender a run as well in the seventh. Hunter Stratton had a tough outing and gave up a run, only going 0.2 innings.
It’s a narrative that continues to follow the Pirates, but unlike in a lot of previous affairs, the Pirates’ offense did more than enough to make up for any shortcomings from the bullpen.
David Bednar cruised through an efficient night for the second game in a row, which is a really good sign to see as his ERA continues to deflate from the nightmare start to the year.
As impressive enough as it is to see the Pirates take the first two of three from LA, it’s equally impressive to see how different both of these wins were. We haven’t seen this kind of skill from the Pirates that allowed them to claim both a 1-0 win and then a 10-6 win the next night.
Tomorrow should be very fascinating as Pittsburgh goes for the sweep. The great Bailey Falter, who sports a 2.56 ERA at PNC Park, takes the mound for the Pirates tomorrow, opposite Walker Buehler for Los Angeles.
(Featured photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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